Household compactors for waste materials are known which are generally located under a counter in a kitchen and comprise a cabinet having a retractable door. The door in most installations has a bottom plate which follows the movement of the door. The bottom plate functions as a support for a rectangular or circular press device chamber which surrounds a special plastic or heavy duty paper container for receiving the waste to be compacted. When the door with the bottom plate and container has been moved into the cabinet, a compression cycle may be initiated thereby compacting the waste in the container. When the container is full of compacted waste material, it is removed from the chamber, which is then opened or expanded in the same way.
Compactors of the type described hereinabove have the drawback that they require a relatively expensive container of a special design which is adapted to be used in the chambers of a variety of compactors, as required.
In order to use common plastic or heavy paper bags in a household compactor, an inner cylindrical jacket must be utilized which functions to protect the plastic bag during the compression cycle of the compactor. It is required that the cylindrical jacket be flexible enough to permit the jacket to be removed from the plastic bag without entraining the waste therein. Because of this requirement the cylindrical jacket must be made of three separate, arcuate sections, which together form a press cylinder. In this arrangement, the sections are placed in a plastic bag before the compression cycle in order to protect it during the compression cycle. However, there are serious disadvantages to this construction and arrangement in that the removal of the sections from the plastic bag full of compacted refuse is an intricate, time-consuming and unclean operation. In addition, it is difficult to place the arcuate sections in the precise position in an empty plastic bag, prior to use of the compactor.
The present invention relates to a household compactor for waste material including a press device and a lower bed plate, the latter being movable between two positions in which one position the bed plate is in vertical alignment with the press unit and another position the bed plate is entirely removed from the press unit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a detachable cylinder for a household compactor that is placed on or above the bed plate and functions during the compression cycle to be surrounded by a container in the form of a common plastic bag, or the like, the bottom of the bag additionally forming the bottom of the cylinder.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cylinder which is divided into two parts that are movable under spring action so that the end of the cylinder facing the bed plate tends to form a larger opening than the opposite end thereof.